Three days ago the ICC officially notified the UN Security Council of the failure of Djibouti and Uganda to arrest Omar al-Bashir while he was present in these two countries. Both are state parties to the ICC and thus obliged by treaty law to arrest al-Bashir due to an arrest warrant by the ICC. This is not the first time a state party has failed to do so.

Today, Rwanda has reiterated its invitation to the Sudanese President, who is supposed to attend an AU summit in Kigali starting tomorrow. Even though Rwanda is not a state party to the ICC and consequently under no obligation to arrest the president, it shows the respect that states have for the ICC, which at least in most parts of Africa is not-existent.

The UN Security Council will probably ignore the communications referring to Uganda and Djibouti and it will most likely ignore al-Bashir’s attendance of the AU-summit.